


Things Are Looking Up

by muffinsome



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Aimiya friendship, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-03-28
Packaged: 2018-01-17 07:20:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1378756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muffinsome/pseuds/muffinsome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU. Nino, his roommate Aiba, boring college parties, that random guy with a plate of cookies... And suddenly Nino's college life starts getting a little more interesting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Are Looking Up

Things were looking up.

Nino was bored out of his mind. On the opposite end of the room, Aiba was going all out socializing, laughing loudly and clearly being the life of the party. Not that Nino was surprised. This was actually just as he predicted, and on most days he wouldn't mind. Except today he just didn't feel like it. He may also have felt a little resentful of the smile that had so easily coaxed him out of the comfort of his dorm room. Once again.

“It’ll be fun,” Aiba had said. “Come on, I don’t want to go alone.”

“It’s a party, you won’t be alone,” Nino had argued.

“It’ll be fun! Matsujun said he’d be there,” Aiba insisted.

“Then you definitely don’t need me,” Nino responded dryly.

“Nino, come on. Just a little while.”

And that was that.

It wasn't that Nino hated college parties – except yes he kind of did. The hipsters, the jocks, he couldn't identify with any of them. He wasn't completely antisocial, and on a good day he’d even admit to being entertained by the trends in idiosyncrasies. But given the choice, he preferred to hang out around an older crowd with whom he wasn't expected to fit in but somehow just did.

And so on this particular night where he wished he could have stayed home, Nino was bored.

But things were looking up.

“Is it okay if I sit there?” Someone asked, words a little slurred despite relative apparent sobriety.

“Yeah, whatever,” Nino said, his words careless, but the tilt of his head suddenly interested.

“Cookies,” the guy offered.

“Where did you get those?” Nino asked , eyeing the plate of cookies suspiciously. The guy shrugged and gestured vaguely towards the rest of the room.

“Yeah, you probably shouldn't eat those,” Nino said, and he watched as the guy’s lips stretched into a lazy smile. “Unless you already did, in which case…”

“It’s okay,” the guy interrupted. “If I pass out just make sure you’re the one to take me home?”

Nino blinked, taking in the guy’s appearance and the way he so casually leaned into Nino’s space. “Are you hitting on me?”

“Yeah, whatever,” the guy smirked.

*

Nino wakes up feeling too warm and not quite rested. He shifts uncomfortably, trying to prevent the buckle of his belt from digging into his hip. “Ugh,” he groans, then gasps as he is suddenly pulled back into someone’s chest, warm morning breath puffing wetly against his neck.

“Why are you still wearing so many clothes?”

“Cause you passed out on me before we could get anywhere,” Nino grumbles, pushing at the hand now trying to crawl underneath his shirt.

“Ah, sorry,” the guy mumbles. “I can make it up to you this morning,” he offers, pressing into Nino.

“Not before coffee,” Nino snaps, and the low chuckle behind him is soon joined by a broken harmony of high pitched giggles from the bed across the room.

“Couldn't you stay over at Jun’s or something?” Nino sighs, grabbing the first thing his hand comes across on the nightstand and throwing it in Aiba’s general direction.

The giggles don’t stop. “Nino’s so grumpy in the morning,” Aiba says, and Nino hears a grunt of agreement from behind his ear. “It’s my room too, you know. But because I’m a good roommate – no, a great one! – and because you two looked so cute sleeping all curled up together like puppies when I came back last night – I’m going to go and get us all some coffee.”

Nino hides his face in the pillow as Aiba hops around the room, pulling some clothes on. The hand on Nino’s hip moves back up under his shirt, but he doesn't bother pushing it away this time. It’s kind of nice. Maybe.

Then the door closes.

“Puppies?” The voice sounds amused.

“I only heard coffee,” Nino denies firmly into the fabric of his pillowcase.

“Nino.”

Nino cranes his neck a little to look over his shoulder and oh. Oh wow. So that’s what he brought back home last night? Not that he was drunk, but it had been kind of dark and they just never bothered turning the lights on before falling into bed together.

“I’m Ohno,” the guy says, smiling a sleepy smile at Nino and making him feel like warm honey inside. “You didn't ask yesterday.”

Nino stares back, dumbstruck for a moment. “Sorry,” he says finally. “I was a little preoccupied yesterday.” There’s a smile tugging at the corner of his lips and he sees the way Ohno’s eyes are drawn to it.

“I’d kiss you right now, but you said not before coffee…”

*

Ohno surprisingly enough is a marine biology student. He spent much of his youth out on a fishing boat with his grandfather, and he can identify about a thousand different species of fish at a glance – though he probably couldn't differentiate their kanji out of a textbook. Twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday nights, he participates in a dance workshop on the East side of campus. He was making his hungry way back from there when he just happened to stumble across that plate of cookies, and then across Nino.

His story makes little sense, but it’s apparently enough to bound him and Aiba in a new profound friendship.

“There’s a place close to Building A where they make gyoza on Friday afternoon, and if you happen to pass by at the right time they’ll give you some for free,” Aiba says eagerly. “We should go together next time!”

And while they go on devising a plan to get all the best free food on campus, Nino doesn't have the heart to tell them that the gyoza thing might actually have been a one time occurrence. Or perhaps more importantly that accepting free food from strangers is not the safest idea. Then again, neither is bringing random weird guys back home, but maybe this time it didn't turn out so bad.

*

“I could take you out on the boat,” Ohno says on the third evening.

“I don’t think so,” Nino replies. He pushes and Ohno shifts, rearranging their limbs together lazily. It’s strange, Nino thinks, how he’s only noticing now the way they fit together when Ohno’s spent the last few nights breathing hotly into Nino’s neck.

“I thought you’d be a one-night stand,” he says, and Ohno smirks.

“I thought you had to have sex to call it a one-night stand,” Ohno replies.

“Do you? Well, whose fault it that?”

Ohno grins and pulls Nino closer. “We could do it now,” he suggests easily.

“You guys are all talk,” Aiba scoffs, and Ohno only giggles as Nino pokes him in the ribs.

*

On Friday afternoon, Nino is packing up his stuff after class when he receives a text message from Aiba. “Operation free gyoza failed,” it says, and Nino rolls his eyes before packing up his phone too. It’s only when he gets home to an empty dorm room that he sees the other three messages.

“Jun-kun is taking us out for gyoza!!”

“Us = your boyfriend and I.”

“You’re invited too.”

Nino frowns, then shoves his phone back into his bag and spends the rest of the afternoon playing games on their mini tv.

When he wakes up the next morning, controller still in hand and head at the foot of the bed, Ohno is back by his side. The blanket has been folded over them creating a little cocoon of warmth, but Nino can’t help but wonder if it’s that or the way Ohno’s arm is wrapped around him like that is where it belongs that makes his face feel so flushed.

*

Midterms are a hellish time of the year for just about any college student, but Nino’s never been overly stressed about them. He does spend a few sleepless nights cramming like most students, but he’s always fared pretty well come the time to write the exam.

This time around should be no different, yet somehow Nino finds himself staring blankly at his textbook, unable to focus. Two days of this and he should be on chapter 6 already, but instead it’s the first paragraph of chapter 3 that seems to stare back mockingly at him as he tries to reread it for the fifth time.

His frustration is maybe making him little paranoid.

“This is stupid,” he sighs, kicking his book off the bed and letting himself fall back against his pillow. Across the room, Aiba is mumbling about components and continuum, seemingly fascinated by the stress tensor in figure 2, and Nino just can’t take it anymore.

“I’m going out for a walk,” he says, and Aiba waves him off distractedly with an hurried request to bring back coffee.

What Nino really needs isn't coffee though, but sleep. Real sleep. Deep peaceful wrapped-in-a-warm-embrace type of sleep. And he probably wouldn't feel so irritated if he was willing to admit that his bed has been feeling empty and cold for the past week without Ohno there. Instead, he tells himself again and again that it’s not because he feels lonely or misses Ohno that he can’t sleep, but only because he’s gotten so used to having him there that it just feels a little weird when he’s suddenly not. It’s all lies, obviously, but what else is he supposed to do? Contrarily to what Aiba and Jun seem to think, Ohno’s not his boyfriend, and if he’s busy somewhere else then Nino’s not going to act like a pathetic lovesick puppy and make a big fuss about it. He can very well deal with it.

Except it would be much easier to deal with it if he wasn't so sleep deprived.

It’s really all just a big headache.

*

Walking doesn't fix the headache, but it does clear his head just enough to let him move on to chapter 6. He’s not sure how much of it he’ll actually remember later, but it’s probably too late to do any better.

“So are you going to tell him that you’re ridiculously in love with him?” Aiba asks, tapping his pen onto his thigh in an offbeat rhythm that has Nino on edge at just the third round of tap-taptap.

Nino grunts. Aiba keeps tapping even as he launches once again into his definition song, and Nino’s heard it so many times already that he thinks he should either get the hell out of here or switch his major to mechanical engineering.

“Wrong,” he says when Aiba makes a mistake, and Aiba waves his pen at him and corrects himself without losing a breath.

Nino would do the same if he weren't so embarrassed.

*

"You could just call him, you know," Aiba tries again a couple days later, when Nino has just opened his statistics textbook (for the sixth time that day).

Nino grunts. "It's fine, isn't it? He's busy, I'm busy, everyone's busy. Whatever."

"Well, I told him I'd try," Aiba says airily, fixing his hair up with a yellow hair clip.

Nino blinks, but his eyes are so dry that it feels like his eyelids are sticking and he has to keep his eyes closed for a moment. He feels a little nauseous.

"What?" he asks when he can finally open his eyes again.

Aiba smiles. The same way he smiles when he manages to catch a wild animal and force cuddle it. It's a trap.

"I saw Ohno-kun earlier today. He said you haven't called." Then he takes a step forward and places a hand on Nino's head. "Nino. Do you even have his phone number?"

Nino winces and bats his hand away. So what if it hasn't felt the need to ask before? Ohno was always there. And Ohno could have asked too. Ohno could have called. Why does Nino have to be the idiot in this story?

"You're both idiots," Aiba laughs. "And you say I'm the stupid one?"

Nino looks down in time to see the piece of paper Aiba is slipping on top of his textbook. There's a phone number scribbled on it. And an address.

"He lives off campus. It should take you about 25 minutes to get there, if you include that shower you really badly need to take. There's a bus..."

Nino doesn't hear the end of that.

*

"So... this is where you've been hiding?" Nino says, tight little nervous fists held deep in his pockets, and Ohno looks up, opens his mouth and drops his keys.

Nino shuffles his feet. Ohno looks down at his keys, then back at Nino. He looks tired, and probably just as scruffy as Nino did a half hour ago. Somehow, that makes Nino's tension melt away.

"Want me to get that for you?" he asks, just as Ohno finally snaps out of it and bends down to retrieve his keys.

"Nino."

"Sorry for showing up unannounced like this. I was just in the neighborhood... walking around with a piece of paper with your address on it. And I figured..."

"I'm glad," Ohno says. He reaches out and takes Nino's hand. "Come in?"

Nino nods and follows Ohno inside.

They make it as far as the genkan before Nino gives in, pulling Ohno in and wrapping his arms around him tight, burying his nose in the crook of Ohno's neck.

"Sorry," he whispers. "I think I kind of missed you a little bit."

"I didn't want to be in the way," Ohno says quietly.

"You're stupid and I love you," Nino breathes into Ohno's skin, but it's only when Ohno's arms tighten around him that he realises exactly what he just said. "I mean..."

"Shut up. Don't take it back," Ohno says more fiercely than Nino could have expected.

"I... Okay," Nino says. Then smiles. "Okay."

 


End file.
